Re: [libreoffice-users] Question about limits for large Master Documents.

LibreOffice’s help describes Master Documents as a way to manage large 
documents made from linked subdocuments, and explains how to export them 
as one Writer document, but it doesn’t state numeric caps.

There are practical limits, mainly  performance and stability, rather 
than a known novel-length word-count cap. A community forum report 
describes an old OpenOffice test document of 57,500 pages and 18 million 
words that could be opened and edited, but so slowly that editing wasn’t 
practical.

For a long text-only novel, a Master Document with chapters or other 
manageable subdocuments is a sensible approach. Keep regular backups, 
and occasionally test exporting a copy as one document and to PDF, since 
the combined output is part of your workflow. LibreOffice’s help 
confirms that a Master Document can be exported as a conventional Writer 
document.

I don’t know of a confirmed fixed maximum, and I don’t want to invent 
one. Based on the documentation I found, there’s no published word or 
character ceiling that should make you feel pressured to keep a novel 
artificially short.

Hope this helps.

Paolo


Il 11/10/26 17:43, Starlight ha scritto:
> Hello,
>
> I am planning to use LibreOffice Writer and Master Documents for a long
> novel.
>
> I have been trying to find out whether there are any documented limits that
> I should know about for a very large book.
>
> Specifically:
>
> 1. Is there a maximum number of sections in a Master Document or in the
> resulting combined document?
> 2. Is there a maximum word or character count for a section?
> 3. Is there a maximum number of subdocuments that a Master Document can
> contain?
> 4. Is there any documented maximum word or character count for the complete
> book after the Master Document and its subdocuments are combined into one
> file?
>
> If there are no fixed documented limits, are there any known practical
> limits for a large text-only book?
>
>
> If you do not know whether there is one, please say you don't know instead
> of inventing false information, if you do think you know, but unsure,
> please tell me and see if you can get it confirmed, as this is very
> important to me,
>
>   I just really don't want to feel crammed or pressured or like something is
> down my throat when im writing, because it feels suffocating and worries me
> if ill reach a limit, if there is one PLEASE reconsider removing limits for
> writing etc, this is like the only app I've found that hasnt talked about a
> limit on its website.
>
>
> Thank you, and lastly thank you for being a free app!

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